Changing the world with Jane Austen's 'Sense & Sensibility'

By Alexander Stevens, Correspondent

Thursday

Dec 7, 2017 at 6:32 PMDec 8, 2017 at 1:47 PM

This avalanche of celebrity sexual harassment allegations wasn’t even a distant rumble when Kate Hamill began writing her adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” in 2010. But five hours before Hamill recently spoke on the phone about her play, NBC-TV announced it had fired Matt Lauer for “inappropriate sexual behavior.”

He was the latest in a long and growing list of disgraced politicians, performers and newsmen.

With her adaptation, to be presented by the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge from Dec. 10 to Jan. 14, Hamill hopes to honor Austen and entertain audiences. But if, along the way, she can change the world a little bit, then that’s good, too.

“I feel like most [stories] in the theater are male-centered and male-driven,” says Hamill. “It’s a power imbalance. The male perspective is viewed as our default mode. The ramifications of that are people like Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump. All these sexual harassment allegations don’t spring from nothing.”

Hamill knows the power of storytelling. She believes it can change an individual, and it can change a society. She says the stories of our youth “can shape our sense of self and even shape our sense of morality.”

As a playwright, Hamill asked herself, “What kind of stories do I want to tell?” She found the answer in her nieces and nephews. They were old enough to start attending her plays, and she wanted to tell stories that would send the right messages.

“They recognize that women can be the hero of the show,” says Hamill. “I think that’s important. And it’s important not just for the girls, but also for the boys.”

If we all need a little guidance on the issue of equality, Jane Austen is a good person to consult. A British author who was born in 1775, Austen created strong women who are independent thinkers. As literary creations, they are uncommonly complex for the time in which they were written. Women were the drivers of her plots, and the heroes of her stories. Austen’s legacy is her ability to tell tales of empowerment during a time of social repression.

In “Sense and Sensibility,” she’s also a social critic. The story follows sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood who are suddenly adrift after the death of their father. They face the world with contrasting personalities: passionate, romantic Marianne and cautious, sensible Elinor.

But just because “Sense and Sensibility” was a great novel, that doesn’t mean it will make a great play. Hamill may revere Austen and her story, but she says she had to toss that reverence out the window. Hamill approached this adaptation as if it were a new play.

“First, I had to decide what ‘Sense and Sensibility’ means to me,” says the playwright. “I decided that it raises the question of how you react to social pressure: Do you follow the rules or do you break them?”

Hamill was neck-deep in writing the play when she met a theater producer at a party. She told him about her “Sense & Sensibility” with its 10-actor cast.

The producer laughed in her face.

Cynical about the harsh financial realities of the theater, he couldn’t imagine staging a play that required the expense of 10 actors.

Luckily, Hamill didn’t listen to the man.

Hamill’s roommate led her to a guy with a bit more vision: Eric Tucker, who was a cofounder of Bedlam, a then-fledgling New York theater company. Tucker read Hamill’s adaptation and appreciated the way she had avoided the cumbersome narration that kills so many novel-to-play adaptations.

He directed the show while Hamill, who started in theater as an actress, performed the role of Marianne. The 2014 production was a hit.

The play was restaged two years later, and the New York Times called it an “enchanting romp” that “expands and magnifies Austen’s delicate comic worldview.”

Hamill’s adaptation has since spawned multiple productions, and it’s now offered by Dramatists Play Service. For the production at the ART, Tucker is back at the helm, although Hamill is not in the cast.

The playwright, who was raised in upstate New York and now lives in Queens, takes pride in the fact that her adaptation has employed so many female actresses in lead roles and that it spreads the gospel of Austen. It’s a small boost to women, still underserved in the theater profession.

Underserved? Really?

Yes, really.

Hamill points out that the staff at resident theater companies are often filled with women, but the most powerful positions – most notably, artistic directors – are still dominated by men.

And although it seems like the works of playwrights such as Sarah Ruhl, Lauren Gunderson and Suzan-Lori Parks pop up everywhere, Hamill reports that the harsh reality is that about 75 percent of all new plays being produced were written by men.

It’s a head-scratcher, particularly when you remember that women make up about 66 percent of theater audiences.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” says Hamill, “but we still have a long way to go.”

Maybe there’s a sign that Hamill helped us all take at least one step in the right direction. It happened after a performance of “Sense & Sensibility.” Since Marianne and Elinor are so distinctly different, fans of the story often identify more closely with one character or the other: “I’m an Elinor,” or “I’m a Marianne.”

After Hamill’s nephew saw the show, Hamill heard him say, “I’m an Elinor.”

“He identified with her, regardless of gender,” says Hamill. “I thought that was so great.”

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